Second screen crashes system

Storm · 2019-10-09 22:47:14

I used to have dual screens then my secondary died a while ago. Now I just got a new one, but if I either log into Plasma with it attached or I attached after logging in and try to enable it, the system jsut crashes, I get a black screen and cannot even switch tty so I have to hard reset the PC. The screen worked just fine on a Windows PC before I brought it home.

I remember having issues setting up the screens before but this is something different, then I had displaying issues but never crashes. So I don't even know where to start looking. Here are some log files. The new screen is the DELL IN2030M

Journal: https://pastebin.com/y8h7D2gi
Xorg log: https://pastebin.com/5TEcG5Ms

I would really appreciate any help.

seth · 2019-10-10 07:30:04

Oct 10 00:14:35 Camelot kernel: nvidia-modeset: WARNING: GPU:0: Lost display notification (0:0x00000000); continuing.

Contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf (and try to move it away)
Also stay away from krandr for the moment: post the output of "xrandr -q" (w/ the second screenattached)
Lastly: try the behavior on the LTS kernel and/or nvidia-390xx driver series.

Storm · 2019-10-10 13:04:38

seth wrote:

Contents of /etc/X11/xorg.conf (and try to move it away)

What do you mean by "move it away"?

xorg.conf

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 352.41  (buildmeister@swio-display-x64-rhel04-11)  Sat Aug 22 00:01:10 PDT 2015


Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

xorg.conf.d/10-display.conf

# Graphics card settings
Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Device0"
	Driver		"nvidia"
	VendorName	"NVIDIA Corporation"
EndSection

# Acer P221w monitor
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Monitor0"
	DisplaySize	474 296				# In Millimeters
	Option		"DPI" "90 x 90"
	Option		"Primary" "true"
EndSection

# Dell monitor
Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Monitor1"
#	DisplaySize					# In Millimeters
#	Option		"DPI" ""
	Option		"Primary" "false"
	Option		"LeftOf" "Monitor0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Screen0"
	Device		"Device0"
	Monitor		"Monitor0"
	Option		"DPMS"	"true"			# Power management
	DefaultDepth	24				# Choose the depth (16||24)
	SubSection	"Display"
		Depth		24
#		Modes		"1280x1024"		# Choose the resolution
#		Option		"UseEdidDpi" "False"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

#Power management settings
Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier "ServerLayout0"
	Option "StandbyTime" "30"
	Option "SuspendTime" "40"
	Option "OffTime"     "50"
	Option "BlankTime"   "0"
EndSection

seth wrote:

Also stay away from krandr for the moment: post the output of "xrandr -q" (w/ the second screenattached)

Never heard of krandr, nor do I have a package with that name installed.

[storm@Camelot] (~) $ xrandr -q
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1680 x 1050, maximum 16384 x 16384
DVI-I-0 connected primary 1680x1050+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 474mm x 296mm
   1680x1050     59.95*+
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    59.94  
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
HDMI-0 connected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
   1600x900      59.98 +  60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1024x768      75.03    60.00  
   800x600       75.00    60.32  
   640x480       75.00    59.94  
DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DP-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

BTW, not sure if it matters but the main screen is attached via a VGA to DVI cable and the second screen via a DVI to HDMI, due to the available ports on my video card being HDMI and DVI but my screens being VGA and DVI. This was also the case with my previous, working dual screen setup so really all that changed is that I unplugged the dead screen a while ago and now plugged the new one in its place.

My card is GeForce GTX 750 Ti/PCIe/SSE2. The integrated Intel GPU is disabled.

seth wrote:

Lastly: try the behavior on the LTS kernel and/or nvidia-390xx driver series.

Currently using extra/nvidia, I'll try the 390 and report back. I don't want to mess with the kernel though, because getting my UEFI bootloader work properly was a pain and it was years ago so I don't even remember how I did it.

seth · 2019-10-10 13:47:05

"rename it" or move it to another location (where it's not sourced) - you can just delete it, that xorg.conf is just useless garbage (mouse and kbd driver are legacy modules and not used)

You cannot have a per-output DPI, rather add that to the device section.
Remove the screen section, you can set the monitor identifiers to their names ("DVI-I-0", "HDMI-0") if you want to apply settings to them through the config.

krandr is part of KDE (probably invisible, but the GUI you used to configure the outputs)
Can you run "xrandr --output HDMI-0 --auto"?

Adapters can suck - bigly, but I don't think that's the problem here. Clean up the xorg configs and try to configure the output w/ xrandr (first w/ a mirror setup, ie. w/o defining a position)

Storm · 2019-10-10 14:51:45

Switching to nvidia 390 made no difference.

seth wrote:

Can you run "xrandr --output HDMI-0 --auto"?

I made your recommended changes, rebooted and ran that line, but got the same as before: black screen and unresponsive PC.

xerxes_ · 2019-10-10 15:09:01

A bit off-top, but do you remember how GeForce GTX 750 worked before you install nvidia drivers (with nouveau)?

I'm thinking about to switch to newer graphic card and I'm thinking about this card with open drivers.

Last edited by xerxes_ (2019-10-10 15:09:38)

seth · 2019-10-10 15:23:22

There should be no problem w/ installing linux-lts (and nvidia-lts)
At worst, it doesn't show up in your boot manager. (Small caveat: the ESP should be large enough to hold two kernels and initramfs)

Can you ssh into the system (if the CRTCs go crazy but the kernel is still running, you could inspect the "crashed" system - and your journal actually showed a soft power-down)
You could also try to "xrandr --display :0 --output …" from there to maybe get some nice error messages.

Storm · 2019-10-16 15:01:20

Sorry for the slow reply, I had some health issues.

seth wrote:

There should be no problem w/ installing linux-lts (and nvidia-lts)

nvidia-lts made no difference, and the lts kernel doesn't show up so I need to figure out how to properly add it to my UEFI options.

seth wrote:

Can you ssh into the system

I don't think so. I don't have another PC. I'll see if I can fire up my old laptop and use that.

seth wrote:

and your journal actually showed a soft power-down

I'm not exactly sure what dies, because the system goes unresponsive - I tried to issue a shutdown/reboot command after the screen went black, assuming that if it's only the screen it should work as I'm still in teh console, but nothing. Trying to switch tty also didn't work. So we can assume that at the very least keyboard input stops working.

Storm · 2019-10-16 15:06:26

xerxes_ wrote:

A bit off-top, but do you remember how GeForce GTX 750 worked before you install nvidia drivers (with nouveau)?

I never used nouveau in my life. I suggest you make your own thread with this question, I'm sure there are people who can answer.

seth · 2019-10-16 15:57:11

Storm wrote:

seth wrote:
Can you ssh into the system
I don't think so. I don't have another PC. I'll see if I can fire up my old laptop and use that.

If you've a smartphone, there're couple of ssh clients for android and iOS.

Storm · 2019-11-23 17:36:23

seth wrote:

Storm wrote:
seth wrote:
Can you ssh into the system
I don't think so. I don't have another PC. I'll see if I can fire up my old laptop and use that.
If you've a smartphone, there're couple of ssh clients for android and iOS.

Welp... sorry for the long delay, I was sick for weeks and such and forgot about this.

So I still have the issue. I got an old used laptop, put Arch on it and SSHd in, and ran the command you suggested but nothing happens if running before the crash,.and it simply hangs if ran after.

Last edited by Storm (2019-11-23 17:39:10)

seth · 2019-11-24 09:09:15

"simply hangs" - forever?
Seems the socket is open but the server doesn't respond, probably because it's in a dead or live lock, then.
Can you "xrandr -display :0 -q" instead?

If not, you could gdb attach to the Xorg process and see where it's lingering around. Also try to sigterm/sigkill the Xorg process (and see how the affected system responds to that)
Oh, and check the Xorg log after the problem occurs.

At least we can probably rule out kernel or plama/kwin related issues here.

Storm · 2019-11-24 10:13:47

So... looks like it's a hardware issue after all. I just booted up Windows on the same box to see what happens, and the same thing happened: After boot process and the initial Windows logo, both screens go dark (no input).

Then I removed my main screen leaving only the new and found this: When connected with the DVI to HDMI I used with my previous screen, it doesn't work, it won't even turn on to display the boot process. However, if I connect it with a DVI to DVI cable to the DVI port instead, then it works properly. So the problem occurs when connected to the HDMI port of my graphics card.

The cable could be faulty, but the system does see the screen correctly when I plug it in, and the screen detects that it is connected now. So could the issue be with the graphics card? That would explain why both screens go black.

Storm · 2019-11-25 06:35:06

Now I'm stuck again. The DVI to HDMI cable is way too expensive to buy a second one just because maybe the one I have could be faulty, and I don't have another DVI screen to test it with, and if it's the graphics card I have no idea how to diagnose that to find out of it's something fixable.

I tried searching specifically for issues regarding HDMI but found nothing relevant.

seth · 2019-11-25 09:33:01

Do you have (access to) a TV w/ a hdmi input (and maybe a cable)?

HDMI is not a dead plug, there's a microcomputer in that thing and the protocol sucks, bigly. When handshakes fail, it's usually™ the cable, also the two outputs on the GPU use the same crtc, so the hdmi jack would have to be physically broken to make it fail on that end.

nb. there's meanwhile a very high chance that your old monitor actually wasn't broken…

Storm · 2019-11-25 11:31:13

seth wrote:

Do you have (access to) a TV w/ a hdmi input (and maybe a cable)?

No, I don't have anything using HDMI.

seth wrote:

nb. there's meanwhile a very high chance that your old monitor actually wasn't broken…

What happened there looked completely different.

The screen sometimes failed to turn on, and kept trying to turn on with an audible click (I assume electromagnetic switch inside) repeatedly until I unplugged it, let it sit for a minute then plugged back in. This started happening more, then I had to replug it 2-3 times until it finally worked, then eventually it was just never able to turn on again. I tested that screen by connecting it with a DVI to DVI cable instead and it still couldn't turn on. The PC itself was however unaffected.

While in this case the screen works fine connected to DVI, but kills the PC/stops it from booting if connected via HDMI (the screen is turned on, and recognizes that it is plugged in, but receives no signal, and the PC recognizes the screen, it's brand, resolution etc. if plugged into the running system).

Storm · 2019-12-21 10:58:59

Well...

I got a new DVI to HDMI cable and the same thing happens. At this point there are two possibilities:

1; My graphics card is faulty
2; Both cables have a problem that did not trigger with the old screen*

* I've read in a bunch of places that some (cheap) HDMI cables have a pin connected that is not supposed to be connected and that this can cause problems with certain screens/TVs. So I'm going to perform surgery on one of my cables to test this theory. Meanwhile I've opened a thread on the nVidia forums: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/fo … hdmi-port/

Storm · 2019-12-21 11:19:41

Storm wrote:

I've read in a bunch of places that some (cheap) HDMI cables have a pin connected that is not supposed to be connected and that this can cause problems with certain screens/TVs. So I'm going to perform surgery on one of my cables to test this theory.

Tried it, made no difference.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-10-09 22:47:14

Second screen crashes system

#2 2019-10-10 07:30:04

Re: Second screen crashes system

#3 2019-10-10 13:04:38

Re: Second screen crashes system

#4 2019-10-10 13:47:05

Re: Second screen crashes system

#5 2019-10-10 14:51:45

Re: Second screen crashes system

#6 2019-10-10 15:09:01

Re: Second screen crashes system

#7 2019-10-10 15:23:22

Re: Second screen crashes system

#8 2019-10-16 15:01:20

Re: Second screen crashes system

#9 2019-10-16 15:06:26

Re: Second screen crashes system

#10 2019-10-16 15:57:11

Re: Second screen crashes system

#11 2019-11-23 17:36:23

Re: Second screen crashes system

#12 2019-11-24 09:09:15

Re: Second screen crashes system

#13 2019-11-24 10:13:47

Re: Second screen crashes system

#14 2019-11-25 06:35:06

Re: Second screen crashes system

#15 2019-11-25 09:33:01

Re: Second screen crashes system

#16 2019-11-25 11:31:13

Re: Second screen crashes system

#17 2019-12-21 10:58:59

Re: Second screen crashes system

#18 2019-12-21 11:19:41

Re: Second screen crashes system

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